Has anyone received 25H2 on unsupported computer from Windows Update

[cork1958]

As title states, I was wondering if anyone has been able to get 25H2 on an unsupported computer through Windows Update yet?

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

By definition if it is unsupported you should Not receive it via windows update and will need to install it manually... Or do you mean on a machine that had Windows 11 installed via requirements bypass?

[cork1958]

On 09/10/2025 at 09:38, LittleNeutrino said:

By definition if it is unsupported you should Not receive it via windows update and will need to install it manually... Or do you mean on a machine that had Windows 11 installed via requirements bypass?

Yes, a machine that has Windows 11 installed via requirement bypass.

Thanks for the reply

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

On 09/10/2025 at 10:54, cork1958 said:

Yes, a machine that has Windows 11 installed via requirement bypass.

Thanks for the reply

Due to the way that they source those updates now they can do a check to view if your machine is under specific requirements before they even push the updates to a machine. you can manually install them most of the time though.

[cork1958]

On 09/10/2025 at 11:09, LittleNeutrino said:

Due to the way that they source those updates now they can do a check to view if your machine is under specific requirements before they even push the updates to a machine. you can manually install them most of the time though.

Yes, I know about the update being rolled out and them checking machine and how that kind of thing works. I was just asking if anyone has received the update as of yet.

Thanks again

[Hau_Kai]

Yes, I have it installed on an unsupported PC. Previously, in past months and years, when I tried to switch Windows Insider channels, or upgrade in-place to newer releases, Microsoft Update would download a large package and fail after attempting install, saying I had unsupported hardware. Although, doing a clean install has been fine for me, even without bypass measures, those in-place upgrades would always fail. This time it was fully up to date, and I just tried the tiny enablement package, which installed fine and it was all done after a brief reboot. Here's the link: KB5054156: Feature update to Windows 11, version 25H2 by using an enablement package - Microsoft Support

That only works if you're on 24H2 and have updated it since August. This is because they have the same codebase, and are effectively the same OS, but 25H2 has certain features enabled, which are disabled in 24H2. The same was the case with 22H2 and 23H2, but it was nowhere near so seamless. As I'm fairly sure that I had to had to do a clean install to get 23H2 installed.

Clean installs are, I think, a requirement when coming from versions prior to 24H2. If you're having problems, try joining the Windows Insider program, as mine was enrolled in the Release Preview channel when I installed it.

Edited October 9, 2025 by Hau_Kai

[cork1958]

On 09/10/2025 at 18:59, Hau_Kai said:

Yes, I have it installed on an unsupported PC. Previously, in past months and years, when I tried to switch Windows Insider channels, or upgrade in-place to newer releases, Microsoft Update would download a large package and fail after attempting install, saying I had unsupported hardware. Although, doing a clean install has been fine for me, even without bypass measures, those in-place upgrades would always fail. This time it was fully up to date, and I just tried the tiny enablement package, which installed fine and it was all done after a brief reboot. Here's the link: KB5054156: Feature update to Windows 11, version 25H2 by using an enablement package - Microsoft Support

That only works if you're on 24H2 and have updated it since August. This is because they have the same codebase, and are effectively the same OS, but 25H2 has certain features enabled, which are disabled in 24H2. The same was the case with 22H2 and 23H2, but it was nowhere near so seamless. As I'm fairly sure that I had to had to do a clean install to get 23H2 installed.

Clean installs are, I think, a requirement when coming from versions prior to 24H2. If you're having problems, try joining the Windows Insider program, as mine was enrolled in the Release Preview channel when I installed it.

My laptop was on 24H2 and fully updated. As @LittleNeutrino said, you can usually manually update, so I did that and it worked flawlessly and was VERY fast.

Usually, I'm willing to wait for any updates and don't like pressing my luck with those even as I sometimes set updates to be postponed for a week, but I wanted to see what was going to happen using an unsupported computer to do this.

Thanks for the reply

[nekrosoft13]

On 09/10/2025 at 10:21, cork1958 said:

Yes, I know about the update being rolled out and them checking machine and how that kind of thing works. I was just asking if anyone has received the update as of yet.

Thanks again

on supported PCs I been running 25H2 for a while now.

Unsupported PC probably will not be offered an update, will have to be done manually.

[Mockingbird]

You have to manually install the Windows 25H2 enablement package (KB5054156).

https://catalog.sf.dl.delivery.mp.microsoft.com/filestreamingservice/files/fa84cc49-18b2-4c26-b389-90c96e6ae0d2/public/windows11.0-kb5054156-x64_a0c1638cbcf4cf33dbe9a5bef69db374b4786974.msu

[cork1958]

On 11/10/2025 at 12:23, Mockingbird said:

You have to manually install the Windows 25H2 enablement package (KB5054156).

https://catalog.sf.dl.delivery.mp.microsoft.com/filestreamingservice/files/fa84cc49-18b2-4c26-b389-90c96e6ae0d2/public/windows11.0-kb5054156-x64_a0c1638cbcf4cf33dbe9a5bef69db374b4786974.msu

As I stated yesterday, I did just that. Worked great.